Critical Essay by James B. Twitchell

SOURCE: Twitchell, James B. “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Wolfman.” In Dreadful Pleasures: An Anatomy of Modern Horror, pp. 215-16. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

In the following excerpt, Twitchell regards “Dracula's Guest” as “one of the best werewolf stories ever written.”

One of the best werewolf stories ever written was a story by Bram Stoker. The story, now called “Dracula's Guest,” has a curious history. Initially intended to be the first chapter of Dracula, it is Jonathan Harker's description of an adventure that occurred between Munich and Bistritz. Briefly, what happens is that en route to Dracula's castle Jonathan is stranded in the countryside by a superstitious coachman who is unwilling to venture further on Walpurgis Nacht. Now on his own, Jonathan...